“Open Data is about receiving complete data in a timely manner. Open data is a first step for sustainability, because it ensures country ownership”, Gladys Ghartey from the Ministry of Finance in Ghana highlighted the need for better data to support country ownership at a side event on Open Data in Financing for Development (FfD): Driving Ownership and Innovation on 16 June 2015 in New York. The availability of open data through IATI is now beginning to demonstrate its impact at country level, and countries such as Ghana and Rwanda promote IATI as a “one-stop-shop” for data on development finance. In Ghana it supports the effective reallocation of development funds by identifying under-funded sectors. In Rwanda it also supports alignment of development cooperation with country priorities and promotes country ownership of the development process. Furthermore, transparency initiatives that focus on open budgets and open contracting are opening up information at national level, enabling increased participation and accountability.

This side event, co-hosted by IATI, UNDP, Publish What You Fund, Transparency International and the International Budget Partnership, brought participants together in New York on 19 June to discuss how the FfD outcome can accelerate efforts to improve the quality, comparability, availability and coordination of information through enhanced transparency and use of open data.